Voucher Foes Win a Round
By Tiffany Erickson Deseret Morning News
The efforts of thousands of anti-voucher volunteers yielded a win for Utahns for Public Schools on Monday, along with setting a record for the number of signatures gathered for a referendum petition.
Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert said that not only are the 124,218 verified signatures a record number on a referendum petition, it’s the first time in 33 years a referendum petition has been successful. The last one resulted in a land-use bill being overturned, in 1974.
Voucher opponents Monday were celebrating, while supporters said it was no big surprise.
“When you have that many PTA moms and teachers and other government employees working on this, it’s not hard to gather enough signatures to put on the ballot,” said Elisa Clements, executive director of Parents for Choice in Education.
The next step in the process is for the state’s Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel to enroll a title within 15 days and prepare what language will go on the ballot.
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has said he will set the election day for Feb. 5, 2008 — the day of the U.S. presidential primary election. But officials predict lawsuits will be filed before then.
The voucher law that the Legislature passed earlier this year provides Utah families with a private-school tuition voucher ranging from $500 to $3,000 per student attending a private school, based on parents’ income. HB148 also appropriates $9.2 million to offset any financial impact that school districts may experience for five years after a student leaves and goes to a private school.
But voucher opponents — Utahns for Public Schools, a group that includes the Utah PTA, Utah Education Association and the NAACP — don’t like the idea of shifting public money to private schools.
In March, the group filed for a referendum to let voters either repeal or keep the voucher program. They were required to collect 92,000 signatures — 10 percent of the votes cast for the last gubernatorial election — and to obtain that percentage in at least 15 counties in order to qualify for a referendum.
Herbert said the group had gathered more than 124,000 verifiable signatures in 25 of the 29 counties.
Kim Burningham, spokesman for Utahns for Public Schools and president of the State Board of Education, said the group ended up with more signatures than he expected.
“This is an issue of a lot of concern,” he said. “We have known that for some time, and it’s been hanging around the Legislature for years. To pass this year by just one vote indicates this is not a slam dunk for anybody and is a decision that must be weighed heavily.”
The next move for groups on either side of the voucher issue will be educating the public about the law, and both sides say they are launching education campaigns.
Meanwhile, even though HB148 is on hold until voters have their say, a second voucher bill that was passed the last night of the session could hold the law in place.
HB174 amended the voucher law by giving the State Office of Education additional money to administer the program and requiring teachers at schools where voucher students are enrolled to have background checks.
Since the voucher law was yet to be enacted, leaders included a large portion of the language from the original bill in the amendment, thus creating what some people believe is a second, separate voucher bill.
Voucher supporters, along with the attorney general, say HB174 has the power to create a voucher program without HB148. Opponents say there is no way to implement a voucher program from a bill that was written as an amendment.
The Utah Board of Education could decide in a meeting Thursday whether to implement a voucher program. Burningham, although not speaking for his board, said HB174 consists of fragments, and the state would be hard-pressed to create a program when the bill lacks language regarding definitions, purposes, enforcement and accountability.
“If the public decides they don’t want it, then the amendments go, as well,” Burningham said. He quoted a 1982 Supreme Court decision that said, “If the trunk is uprooted, then the branches too must fail.”
Regardless of what the state board decides, one or both sides will most likely sue.
Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake, hopes to clear out all the ambiguity when the governor calls a special session to set the election date. McCoy is asking the governor to allow the Legislature to consider a bill that would also put HB174 on hold until the public votes.
If the referendum is successful, then HB174 will die, along with HB148.
“The public is looking for a clear up or down vote on the issue of vouchers, period. And the only way we can get that is to put the whole issue on the ballot,” McCoy said. “If we don’t do something like that, we could have ourselves in position where the people say, ‘We don’t want it,’ but it is still being implemented.”
A handful of people opposed to the referendum filed a motion in 3rd District Court on Friday, asking the court for a restraining order against the lieutenant governor’s office to stop the counting of the petition signatures. The group that filed the request — Utahns for Electoral Fairness — had briefly examining the petitions and believed enough of the signatures were fraudulent to nullify the referendum.
“That issue is not something my office can or does look at,” said Joe Demma, spokesman for the office of lieutenant governor. “We count the certified signatures and that’s it.”
Demma said a judge denied the restraining-order request, allowing the counting to continue throughout the weekend.
Contributing: Wendy Leonard
E-mail: terickson@desnews.com
(c) 2007 Deseret News (Salt Lake City). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.